By Alan Haig-Brown
In recent years, news of the American tug industry has focused on the advent of ship-handling tugs. Voith Schneider propellers, z-drive propulsion, skegs and hawser winches are in the press. Meanwhile, the nation’s ocean-towing fleets have been moving dead ships, fuel, cargo and container barges in support of industry from Alaska, Hawaii, New York, the Caribbean and anywhere that requires affordable Jones Act-compliant freight movement.
In the world of ocean towing, Latham Smith is a legend. He designed and built his Elsbeth II with ocean towing in mind, and recalls the 1960s and ‘70s fondly. But, he said, “The returning Vietnam veterans brought and spread the drug culture until it became epidemic. Using the Coast Guard as a de facto branch of the DEA changed the brotherhood of sailors well established in WWII into ‘them and us,’ with some success at drug control via testing.”
Capt. Smith emphasized his respect for the Alaskan rescue swimmers and others in the U.S. Coast Guard who do valuable rescue work. But he feels that the extension of their mandate to enforce regulations for ocean-towing vessels has harmed the towing industry in America. “In the early 1960s, I made a tow up the East Coast. There was not a single piece of paper required, other than the vessel’s Certificate of Documentation. I relied on my own core of talents,” he explained.
Smith acknowledged that some people took advantage, which has led to today’s heavy regulation for Jones Act tugs. To meet those regulations, Smith’s tugs are equipped with all required devices. He has done many international tows with Elsbeth II, such as the time he towed a scow load of oil-drilling equipment from Brazil to Singapore. Knowing that you have a steady, reliable vessel is a given, but Smith stressed that the important component is a well-trained crew. Today, tasks include training young crew, who have grown up with computer screens, to look out the windows.
Smith Towing has a history with the challenging work of towing dead ships. Smith pointed out important differences between towing ships and barges. “You are towing 50,000 tons or more of mass that has a lot of inertia that a tug doesn’t have. Due to windage, they are typically towing 10 degrees or more off your stern.”
In the event of a broken towline, or when coming to the rescue of a dead ship at sea, the tug should approach the ship on the windward side so it can drift at several knots toward the lee side. When preparing a dead ship for a tow, Smith will have pilot ladders mounted on both sides. “In the 55 years of my sailor career, my tugs have made 200-plus rescues and salvages of ships on rocks or broken down in mid-ocean.” Smith said that the art of salvage, once done by mostly Dutch and Greek vessels, has returned again due to the new regulations.
While nominally retired, Capt. Smith is proud of the boats that he designed and built himself. A few years ago, Smith Towing added a pair of boats that his firm bought from Kirby – one was renamed Capt. Latham. To make them suitable for ocean towing, Smith added a second single-drum winch beside the original winch. He also added towing pins on the stern, which he said are essential for safe ocean towing.
Smith is decidedly from the old school of do-it-yourself towboating. In spite of the upgrades, Smith has grown weary of regulations. He has now sold Capt. Latham to Dann Marine Towing, explaining recently, “I have not met the new mandated regs, which do not fit my operational history, so I have sold to U.S. and foreign operators.”
The glory years of oil in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s North Slope saw a boom in the building of ocean tugs, like Crowley’s 1970s-era Invader class from J.R. McDermott Shipyards in Louisiana. West Coast naval architect Phil Spaulding gave these twin-engine boats a graceful sheerline and followed it with the superstructure. Several decades of ocean have passed under those venerable keels. The nation’s current fleet deserves an updated visit. There are a good many of those graceful old hulls still working, but invariably, they’ve been dramatically upgraded with new power, navigational electronics, and, in many cases, towing winches.
Sause Bros. Inc, on the U.S. West Coast began as a log tower but transitioned to fuel and cargo barges a generation ago. Recently retired, Dale Sause had great success in finding and buying heavily built ocean tugs. He then brought these to the company shipyard at Coos Bay, Ore., where they were stripped, often repowered, and rebuilt to his precise expectations of an ocean-towing tug.
Sause recalled that the tug Black Hawk was his most recent and favorite project. Originating from the Halter Marine Shipyard in 1968 for Crowley Maritime, her 112-by-34-foot hull has an 11.2-foot depth. She was built in a time before rounded bilges were replaced by less-expensive but less-efficient hard or double chines. Sause acquired the esteemed tug in 2012 and began a three-year rebuild that gutted the hull and deckhouse.
“She is lively, but she has a slow-motion roll. She feels like a racehorse sliding through the ocean,” Capt. Scott Jacobsen said after Black Hawk’s first voyage in 2017. “The new tugs push through the ocean, but this boat has a fine entry and a fine exit.” The owners had repowered the vessel with a pair of bright blue V12-cylinder MTU 4000 M53 engines. Although each engine develops 1,851 hp at 1,800 rpm, they operate at an efficient 1,550-rpm, turning 102-inch-diameter wheels with 81 inches of pitch. Marine gears are Reintjes WAF773 with 7.454:1 reduction.
One of the few original features that was not changed was the legendary Burrard Iron Works single-drum towing winch. Manufactured in Vancouver in 1967, it has, like others of that vintage, a reputation for being indestructible. The winch, loaded with 2,200 feet of 2.25-inch wire, is one of a series that is reputed for strength and durability.
The aft deck is also fitted with a tugger winch to recover the heavy pigtail and surge chain onto the tug’s aft deck. The chain, common on Sause barges, has 3-inch stud links, each one about 18 inches long and weighing 98 pounds. This includes two 90-foot shots of chain in addition to two more shots of surge gear. The barge bridles are 90 feet of the same chain on each leg.
Seattle-based Western Towboat Co. takes a distinctly different approach, choosing to build their own tugs in the company parking lot. They also introduced z-drives for towing. Western’s fleet of seven Titan-class tugs have been built between 2001 and 2016, a remarkable growth and endorsement of the functionality of the design. The earlier boats are 108 feet with the latter at 120 feet by 35 feet. The latest tugs are powered by a pair of Cat C175s producing a total of 5,000 hp at 1,800 rpm. Each engine drives a 100-by-120-inch propeller in a Schottel ASD nozzle.
Russell Shrewsbury, VP at Western Towboat Co., explained that these boats are primarily committed to the run from Seattle to Southeast Alaska. Most of this work centers around large container barges with considerable windage. The several ports of call in southeast Alaska can have strong wind and tide alongside the docks; the z-drives allow the tugs to go on the barge’s hip and do their own docking without an assist tug. For towing up through Canada, the tugs are fitted with Rapp Hydema towing winches with 2,800 feet of 2.25-inch wire.
Western also does a good bit of coast-wide towing, including California, Hawaii or out across the Gulf of Alaska and in the Bering Sea. Shrewsbury explained that for these jobs, they utilize boats like their 4,200-hp, twin-screw 117-foot Ocean Ranger. “The older, mechanical Cat engines are also much easier for crew to troubleshoot versus these new, highly electronic engines on the [Titan-class] tugs. So for remote long trips, boats like Ocean Ranger are preferred as a level of reliability and more crew/engineer knowledge of the engines.”
Southern California-based Curtin Maritime added the big, 126-by-34-foot ocean tug Debra C to their fleet a couple of years ago. Built in 1971, it’s one of the big tugs from Louisiana’s Halter Marine. Debra C’s propulsion power also includes some historic components. A pair of EMD 16-645-E2 engines turn four-bladed, 96-by-96-inch propellers in Nautican nozzles through massive Falk reduction gears. In addition to 3,900 hp, the EMDs give the boat that legendary sound like a diesel train coming down a straightaway. The Nautican nozzle design was initially developed in the 1980s by the late Josip Gruzling, a marine engineer from North Vancouver, B.C., who revisited the old Kort nozzle design with an understanding of the dynamics of a modern aircraft wing. The result, sometimes called a “speed nozzle,” provides thrust without drag. Variations of the Nautican nozzle can now be found on many long-voyage tugs.
Debra C has been busy under her new owners, explained Chas Henderson, VP of operations for Curtin Maritime. “The majority of the ocean towing that we perform is spot-market work; we do not have any set routes. Debra C has a proven record of ocean towing. We’ve owned the boat for just a couple of years, but under our ownership, she’s been up and down the West Coast from Washington to Panama, Hawaii and Japan; through the Panama Canal several times; the Caribbean; and all over the Gulf and East Coast.
“Our tug Karen C has also covered an impressive amount of ocean under our ownership in the past six years,” he added. “She’s been all over the Pacific, including Hawaii, Midway Atoll, Kwajalein Atoll, Panama and several trips through the Canal, Chile, Antarctica, and all over the Gulf and East Coast of the USA.
“Same with our tug Shirley C – she’s been from Nome, Alaska to New York [and] all over the Pacific, including Hawaii, Midway Atoll, Kwajalein Atoll, numerous trips through the Canal, Mexico, and all over the Gulf and Eastern seaboard.”
Stasinos Marine LLC, based in Weymouth, Mass., operates a fleet of tugs with diverse assignments. The firm offers dredge and construction support as well as coastwise and ocean towing. Principal owner James C. Stasinos Jr. reported that “Stasinos Marine does ocean towing on the Gulf Coast, Caribbean, East Coast and the Great Lakes. This year, we have completed a few notable ocean tows, including a tank barge to St. Croix from Rhode Island by our tug James Charles; a tow of steel fender sheets from Harvey, La., to Wilmington, Del., to be used for a bridge fender on the Delaware Memorial Bridge; and two tows from the East Coast to Chicago.”
Crowley Maritime had their 128-foot Invader-class tugs built in the 1970s with twin 20-cylinder EMD engines delivering a combined 7,200 horsepower. They set a standard for other Jones Act-compliant tugs of their era. Forty years later, in 2012 and 2013, the firm built four new Ocean-class boats with a pair of Caterpillar C280-12 Tier II diesel engines, designed to operate on ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and rated for a combined 10,880 horsepower. Ocean Wind and Ocean Wave are 146-feet, while Ocean Sky and Ocean Sun are 156-feet. All four have the same 46-foot beam and 21-foot draft.
The engines turn four-blade, controllable-pitch, 153.5-inch-diameter propellers in high-efficiency nozzles through Reintjes gears. These give the tug a free-running speed of up to 14 knots. For towing, each boat has an Intercon DW275 hydraulic winch with 3,000 feet of 2.5-inch wire on the upper drum and 4,200 feet of 2.75-inch wire on the lower drum. All four boats have in excess of 160 short tons (145 metric tonnes) of bollard pull.
In addition to being big, capable boats for ocean towing, these tugs also have equipment more commonly seen on anchor-handling tugs. In place of a conventional transom, a 6-foot-diameter roller is installed across the stern, while 350-metric-ton Triplex quick-release Shark Jaws are installed in the aft deck. The boats are equipped with 200-metric-ton wire guide pins as well.
Bow and stern thrusters on all four boats give them dynamic positioning capabilities. They are 500-hp stern thrusters and 850-hp (Ocean Wind/Ocean Wave) or 500-hp (Ocean Sky/Ocean Sun) bow thrusters. This gives a rating of ABS DP-1 for the Ocean Wind/Ocean Wave and DP2 for the Ocean Sky/Ocean Sun.
McAllister Towing provides assist and ship docking services at a number of ports along the Atlantic coast. They also have a significant presence in the ocean-towing market along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. They acquired Donny F. McAlister (ex-Capt. Fred Bouchard, Addy Lou II) in 2024 and put it to work towing. A dead-ship tow from San Francisco and short-sea shipping with barge loads of containers being sorted from larger to smaller ports are typical assignments.
As McAllister Towing’s VP of operations, Capt. Steve Kress explained, “Donny F. is a straight-out long-distance powerhouse.” That’s an apt description, given the tug’s twin 16-cylinder EMD mains generating a total of 5,750 hp and turning two 140-inch props. Built by Halter in New Orleans in 1981, the tug is of the generation of good-looking, powerful boats.
A contrast is McAllister’s leased tug Washington. A highly maneuverable near sister to Western Towboat’s Titan class, Washington is typically assigned to tows where it can get on the hip of a barge and, using its z-drives, manage it in tight conditions. At the same time, its 6,000-hp General Electric 8L250 engines, driving Schottel z-drives, give plenty of towing power. Washington is fitted with a JonRie 500 double-drum towing winch with 2,400 feet of 2.25-inch wire on the primary drum and 1,800 feet of 2-inch wire on the secondary drum.
Ocean towing that takes a barge or a dead ship from point A to point B remains a matter of horsepower, an efficient hull and safe, reliable towing gear. That generation of tugs, mostly built on the Gulf Coast in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, had long, deep hulls with round chines. Their props, either open or nozzled, were deep with a good flow of water off the well-formed hulls. Their hulls provide space for long aft working decks and large deckhouses with comfortable accommodations. A common update adds sound insulation for the accommodations.
In summer 2024, another of these venerable vessels got an extensive makeover and update of its living spaces by California’s Greger Pacific Marine. Pomaikai (ex-Manfred Nystrom, ex-El Zorro Grande, et al.) was built in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1966. At 121 by 32 feet, Pomaikai is a classic of its era with a proven track record. Its new owners have also added an elevated wheelhouse, among other improvements. Pomaikai’s power remains a pair of EMD 16-645 E2 engines delivering a total of 3,900-hp to 106-by-86-inch propellers through Falk gears.
Pomaikai will be available for charter work in September of 2024 with an Almon Johnson towing winch carrying 2,600 feet of 2.25-inch wire on the primary drum with a split-level wind and capacity to store a shot of chain, as well as 1,400 feet of total capacity on the pennant drum. Its transom is fitted with hydraulic towing pins with hold-downs. CEO Ron Greger explained that they have also reduced the tonnage from 198 to 147. Fuel capacity totals 114,600 gallons. New fendering was installed, as well as a new steering system and electrical equipment.
These old tugs, with their sleek, efficient, round-chine hulls, that cost a fraction of the new build, will continue as a fine alternative for years to come. Reports are also in of AML Lynden rebuilding Polar King in Seattle, while Boyer Towing is rebuilding Katherine H (ex-Barbara Foss). •